An analysis is given of the effects of nonuniversal soft supersymmetry
-breaking masses in the Higgs sector and in the third generation squar
k sector, and it is shown that they are highly coupled. Nonuniversalit
y effects on dark matter event rates in neutralino-nucleus scattering
are analyzed. It is found that the effects are maximal in the range m(
x1)(-) less than or equal to 65 GeV where the relic density is governe
d by the Z and Higgs poles. In this range the minimum event rates can
be increased or decreased by factors of similar to 10 depending on the
sign of nonuniversality. Above this range Landau pole effects arising
from the heavy top quark mass tend to suppress the nonuniversality ef
fects. The effect of more precise measurements of cosmological paramet
ers on event rates, which is expected to occur in the next round of CO
BE-like satellite experiments, is also investigated. Implications for
the analysis for dark matter searches are discussed.